Wednesday, February 27, 2013

On January, 3rd I did an article about the pound
sterling. Recently my wife reminded me that several years ago she had been
given a collection of old coins, and she was curious to know how much they were
worth. A quick Google came up with CoinQuest, which is a website for
identifying and pricing collector coins.

I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to work out the value of my wife’s collection – roughly £540! That was
not a bad gift. Of course, getting that amount for the collection would not be
easy. If the coins were sold individually, or lumped together by country, one
might sell them through Ebay. However, the hassle of doing it would hardly
warrant the reward, because it could take months to dispose of the collection.

There are a few coins my wife would not want to part with,
but she would possibly sell her 1914 [E] Buffalo five cent piece which is in
very good condition. I understand a collector would pay 140 US dollars for a
1914 [D]. However, the [E] which my wife has is far less valuable. The person advertising a
Buffalo [E] nickel currently on Ebay.co.uk is asking for offers up to £144.99,
which is 219.85 US dollars! I think that’s probably a bit pricey.

Well, I had a great time looking at my wife’s collection
containing coins from many different countries. The oldest was a 1675 Great
Britain Charles 2nd farthing, probably worth £40.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Last Wednesday my wife and I took our grandchildren to
Southend Pier for a ride on the train to the Lifeboat Station at the seaward
end of the pier. The 1.33 mile long pier is reputed to be the longest in the
world, but I believe it is, in fact, the longest ‘pleasure’ pier in the world.

The boys loved the train ride, but it was just as well that
they were appropriately dressed for the bitterly cold wind they experienced
when alighting from the train. The café was closed because of an electrical fault,
and the only place where we could seek shelter was at the Lifeboat Station.
There we found others sheltering from the wind until the next returning train.

A souvenir shop adjoining the lifeboat boathouse was a hit
with the kids. They weren’t in the least interested in the Atlantic 75 and the
Offshore D-class lifeboats that had recently been in action. Altogether, last
year, Southend lifeboats were launched 137 times!

Since 1879 Southend lifeboat crews have saved over 2,000
lives. All the work today is done by a team of 40 volunteers, and they even
operate a rescue hovercraft.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

My wife and I regularly do our shopping on Thursdays. We
stock up with provisions for the week. We don’t do a great deal of thinking
before we purchase things we want. Mostly the stuff we buy is similar from week
to week. We get the staples: bread, milk, cereal, meats and vegetables. If
there’s any chore to it, the burden lies with my wife, because she devises menus
and does the cooking; therefore, if anyone has to think, it is her.

I like a balanced diet, and I prefer freshly prepared meals
to frozen readymade ones that only require heating in an oven or in a
microwave. Processed meals tend to have far too much salt, fat and sugar in
them, and as we’ve been hearing of late, they may not match the description on
the label. Perhaps we’ve been eating horsemeat while believing it was beef.
Most of us wouldn’t know the difference, and I suspect we have unknowingly been
misled.

I am not averse to eating horsemeat, but I would prefer to
be given the option through the correct labelling of meat. I understand that
some French people eat frogs and horsemeat, but as far as I’m concerned I never
want to discover I’ve been eating frogs when I thought I was eating snails!
Please get the labelling right, and be honest. In fact, I would not choose to eat snails, and
in the same vein I do not enjoy eating mussels or cockles.

If I were forced to make a choice between being a vegetarian
and a carnivore I would definitely prefer eating vegetables, especially as there
is a proven correlation between those who eat large quantities of fatty meat
and those who die with stomach or colon cancer. A happy balance is to be found
in the omnivore who eats both vegetables and meats.

We only need look around to see that a quarter of the UK
population is obese - a word that overweight, rotund people do not like,
preferring fat, because it sounds kinder and less hurtful. The truth is, most
such people would give their right arm to be slim, but it is beyond their ability
to do anything about it. Mostly their condition comes about through bad diet
because of eating takeaway foods that are heavily impregnated with saturated
fats, sugars, and too much carbohydrate. Fizzy, sugary drinks add to the
problem.

Ideally, we should return to eating local produce, preferably
vegetables and fruit we grow in our own gardens or allotments. Today, the way
we live in little boxes with no access to plots of land makes this ideal
situation almost impossible. The next best thing is to buy from local markets,
but there are few of them. Now there is little option, other than the supermarket.
There we find food from all over the world, but at the expense of pollution
through carbon emissions. Food bought at supermarkets is heavily packaged and
often it is far from fresh.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

CK 105 and LO 262 were participating in the Colne Smack and
Barge Race on 3rd September, 2011, and CK 21 and CK 210 were engaged
in oyster dredging at the Mersea Dredging Match on Sunday, 4th
September, 2011.

If you click the links below you will find more photos of
smacks that took part in these events.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Whenever I am on the water I’m on the lookout for boats to
photograph. Conditions are not always suitable for taking photos, especially as
I do not have a waterproof camera and perhaps rain is lashing down, or spray is
being blown over the boat.

After I have taken photographs I usually transfer them to an
external hard drive for viewing later on my laptop computer. If I’m at a loose
end, twiddling my fingers wondering what to do, which is not very often, I can
entertain myself by looking at the photos. Sometimes I am surprised by them
because I’m usually not too fussed about getting things in focus or capturing
specific views. Much of my photography is intuitive; I look through the
viewfinder and press the button – that’s it.

Well, here are four photos taken before and during a smack
race when there was very little wind.

Incidentally, if anyone would like a full size copy of any
of them, please let me know. I’ll gladly email a digital copy.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Below there are a number of links to websites
providing information about the 92 year old ‘Sedov’, a 117.5 metre Russian
windjammer. Not far short of 100 years old she has a fascinating history.
If you are interested, you can learn more about her by visiting the websites.

She recently stopped off at Hong Kong while on a
13 month circumnavigation of the world, putting into 32 ports.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Here are three photographs taken at Hullbridge by the River
Crouch, Essex, England. They were taken on a rather dull and cold day in
February, 2013, which I might say was quite typical at that time of year. I don’t
think there is anything special about these photos, nor do I think they hold any
artistic merit. They have not been cropped, or treated in any way. I took them
on the spur of the moment with the camera of my iPhone 4s.

Technically they are snapshots, i.e., informal photographs snapped
quickly, but what they have done is to record fleeting moments in time. They contain
very little colour because there was no direct sunlight and the colours of
nature were muted, so as to become almost monochromatic.

The question is, “What do you see?”

So often we look at something and we don’t see the whole
picture. Our mind may be focussed not on what we are seeing, but upon what we
are thinking. We don’t give our full attention to our field of vision. However,
when we take time and examine a photograph we focus on what is enclosed within
the frame. The images are frozen. We explore them in detail. This can be
revealing and thought provoking. Stimulus from the images can fire the
imagination; they can remind us of past associations; they can trigger artistic
expression and they can move the emotions.

The visual image in the form of a photograph can be
exceedingly powerful; once seen never forgotten. I am mindful of one of the
most moving, horrific images ever portrayed on the front page of a newspaper,
that of a tiny girl burnt and scarred by napalm, running naked from the flames
that had engulfed her.*

“What do you see when you look at the photos above?”

I see beauty, love and contentment. I see harmony, life and
the fingerprint of God.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

When I was at school, I sat at an oak desk that had a
ceramic inkwell which required topping up. I would dip the nib of my pen into
the ink before writing. If I dipped too deeply, ink would run off the nib and
cause a blot. If I didn’t immerse the nib sufficiently, there would not be
enough ink in the reservoir for writing more than a word or so, but when loaded
correctly, I could perhaps write half a sentence.

This was about the same era ballpoint pens became available
to the masses, but they were frowned upon by teachers and banned from the
grammar school I attended. They were not entirely reliable, and often ink would
rub off the paper onto ones hand. Getting it off was a problem.

The very first ballpoint pen was invented as long ago as
1888 when John Loud, an American leather tanner came up with the idea for
marking his leather hides, but it wasn’t until the mid 1940s that the concept
was developed and the manufacture of ballpoint pens became commercially viable.
There were hiccups on the way, and the Biro brothers, Ladislas and George, suffered
setbacks with the manufacture and sale of their ‘biros’, but eventually, in
1944, their perseverance paid off when people started buying their
revolutionary pens.

Sheaffers, the Fort Madison Iowa fountain
pen manufacturer, realized the potential, and produced their first ballpoint
pen, the RA-1 Stratowriter, in 1946. That was the very year their Variation 111
Touchdown Craftsman fountain pen sold like hot cakes. It was a low price, lever
operated ink-filled pen fitted with a plain, gold style ‘Triumph’ pointed nib.
My wife’s brother lived in India at the time, and he was given one of these
pens as a present. Sadly the young man tragically died shortly after receiving his
pen which now belongs to my wife.

The pen has great sentimental value for her; therefore she
would not part with it at any price, despite the fact that a collector may
perhaps pay in excess of £100 for it, not just because he desire it, but
because the pen comes with its original box which is in good condition.

Monday, February 18, 2013

This was the belief of maritime explorers who sailed into
the unknown - Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan were notable examples
of those who reasoned the world was spherical. Prior to their voyages of
exploration in the 15th century many believed the known world was
flat, and that it came to an end, where oceans cascaded off the edge. They were
fearful that ships venturing nearby would come to a sticky end.

When you are at sea beyond sight of land, you observe the
curvature of the horizon. As you approach land you see more and more of it,
until eventually you observe surf breaking on the beach or at the cliff face.
There is no horizon and you are in peril. The land and all that it offers
brings death and destruction. You must turn about and seek safety beyond the
sea’s horizon into its circle of protection.

When I walk the paths beside the River Crouch I am awed with
a sense of infinity, the incomprehensible enigma of unending space and time,
horizon beyond horizon, apparently unreachable. There I meet with the One who
created space and time.

I know that to know Him is to know the Eternal.

Those who seek Him earnestly can find life beyond the
horizon; His love and protection within.

John 14:6 ‘Jesus said
to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”’

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Francis Joyon has done it again! He has broken the record
for sailing solo across the Atlantic in the least time. Having previously
broken the record in 2008, he set off again from the Bay of Cadiz on Wednesday,
6th February, 2013, and after an astonishingly fast crossing of 8
days, 16 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds, his 97 foot trimaran, IDEC, crossed
the line at San Salvador. For four of those days the huge trimaran sailed more
than 500 nautical miles at a time. Altogether on the Columbus Route he sailed
4,379.5 miles at an average speed of 21.04 knots. Can you imagine what it must
have been like?

Joyon already holds the record for sailing solo around the
world faster than any other person; he did it in a time of 57 days, 13 hours,
34 minutes and 6 seconds. He also holds the record for the furthest distance
sailed in 24 hours, a distance of 613.54 miles at an incredible average speed
of 25.56 knots. And now he has the Columbus Route record, officially ratified
by the World Speed Sailing Record Council .

It appears he wants to have a crack
at the New York to the Lizard record, and he is making his way to the Big Apple
where he will wait for favourable weather.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

I would appear to have an obsession with following Charlie
Pitcher on his rowing adventures. I have mentioned or featured him in 6
previous postings! The truth is that what he is doing is amazing, and yet he
makes it all sound so commonplace. Attempting to row across the Atlantic all by
oneself and at the same time pushing hard to break the record for doing it in
the least amount of time, is no mean feat. He has prepared well by training
for the task in hand and by appropriately equipping his boat, which is probably the most technologically
advanced for such an attempt.

Now, if you are interested, you can follow him daily by visiting
his website. Via his blog he speaks the truth as it happens. He tells of not
being able to keep his body clean because conditions haven’t been calm enough
for him to have freedom to do it, and yet he knows how important it is to look
after his body. At the first opportunity, when the sea is calm enough he will
give himself a body wash and have a shave.

He knows how important it is to eat well and drink sufficient
fluid for maintaining his health and for providing the energy required for
putting in the miles. He knows how he must maintain a rhythm and pattern, and
yet be flexible by adjusting his rowing schedule to fit weather conditions.
Getting sufficient sleep is important.His mental attitude is crucial for success. Just now he compares the present
voyage with his previous Atlantic row and he feels lonelier. The striped fish
and the bird that keep him company are of little consolation.

Having contact with the outside world by an Iridium
Satellite phone is positively helpful, because being able to talk with others
reduces his sense of isolation. Charlie greatly appreciates his weather guru,
Andrew Wise. So far, everything Andrew has forecast has come about. Knowing in
advance what weather to expect, Charlie can make contingencies for what the
future holds.

Until recently the wind has been from astern, but yesterday it
backed. This is not helpful because the boat is being set to the south, and
Charlie has to work at keeping on track. However, he’s chuffed, because
he is ahead of his theoretical position for achieving his goal of breaking the
record.

If I wasn’t a Christian I might be foolish enough ask the
ancient Greek god Zeus to look upon him kindly, but the real and only true God
who dwells in Heaven, knows the whole story from beginning to end.

Proverbs 5:21 ‘For the
ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths.’